MORE BIRDS – Marilyn Armstrong

Normally, by this time of year, I’m taking pictures of drifts of snow. But there is no snow. It’s cold, but not as cold as normal and the cold only lasts for a day at a time, then it warms up. By this time last year, we’d already had two feet of snow and were working on a third. This year, barely a trace and that was early in November.

Diving Chickadee and a Nuthatch

So, no snowdrift. Birds.

Chickadee landing on runway 1!

The birds are more interesting anyway. In my memory, we’ve had a few winters with almost no snow … until the end of January and then we got buried. Until the daffodils are blooming, we will take a “wait and see” attitude.

White-breasted Nuthatch

It is unusually warm. There has been plenty of precipitation that would have been snow, but being so warm, we’ve had rain instead.

Nuthatch and Chickadee

I have mixed feeling about our lack of winter. Gratitude because the snow makes it hard to get around, but worry too because we ought to be having winter and we aren’t.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

At least we don’t have to dig our way out of the front door. That’s something. Climate change or just the vagaries of New England weather?

24 thoughts on “MORE BIRDS – Marilyn Armstrong”

Yes, they are, and I notice a lot of them are becoming more white as the “winter” advances, supposedly to make them less obvious during snow. We got a dusting this morning, but now it’s raining. The birds are eating like there’s no tomorrow.

El something. But El Nino usually means MORE snow, not less. The winds are not blowing in their normal patterns, so all the snow is moving north and we aren’t getting it. I don’t mind that, but it worries me a little. The shifting of winds. It’s worrying our meteorologist friend, too. Every now and again, he murmurs “climate change” while doing the weather. I murmur along with him.

An excellent statement of the winter’s weather and el nino! The warmer equatorial Pacific really does control our weather, and it’s not consistent from one year to the next. El nino winds can cause drought here, as it has for the last several years, or they can cause torrential rains, as has happened in two or three years that stand out. The pattern really changes apparently on a whim, but it always is the controlling factor!

We are definitely post-drought. We have had the rainiest autumn ever and it looks like the rainiest and least snowy winter, too. But on that, we’ll see. All it takes is a little wind shift and winter will arrive in all its glory.

I agree, Marilyn, that at this stage in the cycle of the EArth, the climate changes are worrying. I try not to dwell on things I cannot change other than to try and do my bit to help. Our summer has been horribly hot. Temperatures of nearly 40 degrees Celsius. South aFrica has a hot climate but those temperatures are not normal. 34 is our normal temperature. We also had no rain for months but, thankfully, it is raining now.

Spring was unusually cold and it went on at least a month longer than normal. We didn’t see our spring flowers until July — usually, the should have bloomed in late May and early June. We didn’t have Autumn. Instead, we had howling winds and drenching rains — this after a nearly 10-year drought — but to be fair, we are usually dry from May through early August. Not THIS year. The changes in wind and water in the ocean ought to have a lot MORE people scared. In any case, what can we do by ourselves? I recycle, even though there’s nowhere for the recycling to go, but it’s what I can do. I feed the birds. And I worry.

It has begun to snow. Our first of the year – extremely late as we had snow the first of Dec. last two years. Can’t wait to see how the pooch reacts. Adam will be devastated as he wanted to see Loki’s reaction to it. Mind you, it just started 2 minutes ago. Hard to tell if it will continue at this point although they are calling for snow all week with an 80% chance of heavy snow by saturday.

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